By Nick Taylor-Vaisey, Zi-Ann Lum and Kyle Duggan

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In today's edition:

→ Stunning allegations about India's possible involvement in the killing of a Sikh leader in British Columbia.

→ JUSTIN TRUDEAU and MÉLANIE JOLY are Big Apple-bound for UNGA Week.

→ An interview with JANE PHILPOTT on what might be next for national pharmacare

India has rejected Canada's allegations about the death of a Canadian Sikh leader. | AFP via Getty Images

MOOD CHANGE — Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU’s allegations that India may have been behind the murder of a Canadian Sikh leader brought rare visions of unity within the House of Commons Monday — a few waves of nonpartisanship in a sea of discord.

The PM's claim might answer some questions about recent icy relations. But it also raises plenty more about what comes next.

— Bombshell: Trudeau rose after question period and confirmed Globe and Mail reporting that Canadian authorities believe agents of the Indian government may be behind the killing of Canadian Sikh leader HARDEEP SINGH NIJJAR.

It was a rare, stunning moment.

The news cycle that virtually tarred and feathered Trudeau's apparent dressing down in a brief bilateral meeting with Indian PM NARENDRA MODI turned on its head.

The closing words of Trudeau's sanitized "readout" of that G-20 bilat said he "raised the importance of respecting the rule of law, democratic principles, and national sovereignty."

Trudeau said Monday he voiced the allegations "in no uncertain terms" in that meeting. The coles notes: "Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty."

— India objects: India's foreign ministry rejected the allegations, calling them "absurd" and politically motivated, adding: "We are a democratic polity with a strong commitment to rule of law."

— Unity in the House: PIERRE POILIEVRE was recently snarking Trudeau on the topic of India. "Putting partisanship aside," he wrote on X just days ago, "no one likes to see a Canadian prime minister repeatedly humiliated & trampled upon by the rest of the world."

That snide reference to Trudeau's confrontation with Modi hit differently Monday, when Poilievre really did set aside partisanship for a few minutes in the House of Commons.

Having been briefed by Trudeau a short time prior, Poilievre stood in solidarity with the PM. Another rare sight.

"We are all Canadians. This is our country," he said. "We must be united for our home and for each other. Let us all lock arms and join hands in condemning this murder, standing with the family and friends of its victim. Let us all put aside our differences to stand up for the rule of law. One law for all of our people. A law made in this chamber by Canadians for Canadians."

— Fallout: Foreign Minister MÉLANIE JOLY told reporters that Canada had expelled an Indian diplomat, PAVAN KUMAR RAI. Joly's office identified him as the Canadian head of New Delhi’s Research and Analysis Wing (India's foreign intelligence agency). The Indian High Commission website lists him as a minister for eco, coordination and community affairs.

India also in turn expelled a senior Canadian diplomat, saying the decision reflects the government's "growing concern at the interference of Canadian diplomats in our internal matters and their involvement in anti-India activities."

— Next questions: Will Ottawa overhaul its priorities with India in the federal Indo-Pacific strategy? When did Canadian intelligence officials know about the allegations? When were the prime minister and International Trade Minister MARY NG informed? Is this why Ottawa requested a pause in Canada-India trade talks? Will this bring an advocacy chill in diaspora communities? How will Canada's partners respond?

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People arrive at the U.N. headquarters for this week's General Assembly. | Bryan Woolston/AP Photo

DOWN UNGA — Trudeau heads to New York today for the U.N. General Assembly with an itinerary that might as well have been copied and pasted from last year.

— Quick trip notes: Trudeau will arrive late in the Big Apple, but in time to attend a Sustainable Development Goals reception. The bulk of his UNGA meetings will be loaded onto Wednesday.

— Climate a top focus: Canadian firefighters will also be part of the delegation to share first-hand stories about the country’s worst wildfire season — a reality the government has been trying to frame into its argument to support carbon pricing.

— Who else is there: Joly is already there, arriving Monday for a dinner with G-7 foreign ministers on the sidelines. She has vowed to raise Nijjar’s killing with her counterparts.

Environment Minister STEVEN GUILBEAULT is also in town and with a lunchtime panel discussion at Columbia University moderated by Washington Post climate correspondent TIM PUKO.

TWO VISIONS — The House is primed for fierce fall foofaraws over punishing housing costs, anxiety-inducing grocery prices, affordable drugs and safer streets.

This is the latest theater in the Conservative-Liberal battle royale over who best represents what both sides call "the promise of Canada" — a neat summation of limitless opportunity owed to anybody in Canada who aspires to it.

Lofty talk, we know. And they'll disagree at almost every turn.

Poilievre presented his definition to a friendly crowd of anti-Liberals at the Conservative policy convention in Quebec City. Freeland countered with her own view to a friendly crowd of anti-Conservatives at the Global Progress Summit in Montreal over the weekend.

Spot the difference if you can.

— Poilievre's version: "A kid could start anywhere and get anywhere. Hard work used to get you a powerful paycheck that bought you good food and a decent home and retirement in a safe neighborhood in a free country. Every generation was just a little bit better off than their parents."

— Freeland's version: "In the 1940s and 50s, a generation of Canadians settled in single-family homes along new, tree-lined streets — raising families behind the white picket fences which came to symbolize the dream of home ownership held by Canadians for the next 60-odd years. If you worked hard, we were told — if you went to school, found a good job, and squirreled some money away — there would be a home that you could afford.”

— The similarities: Dreams. Hard work. Savings. Home ownership. Nice neighborhoods.

— The difference: Aside from Poilievre's penchant for paycheck-powered alliteration? The pair disagrees on the status of the promise for 30-somethings with decent incomes.

Freeland says it's "under threat," and Liberals will restore certainty by "working together in common cause" with provinces, cities, nonprofits and the private sector — "not for weeks or months, but for years."

Poilievre says it's broken, only to be fixed by a "common sense Conservative government that frees hard-working people to earn powerful paychecks that buy affordable food, gas and homes in safe neighborhoods."

— Question for pollsters: Where do voters stand on the status of the promise of Canada?

STRIKE WATCH — Unifor negotiations with Ford were extended up to 24 hours after last night's midnight deadline. "The union received a substantive offer from the employer minutes before the deadline and bargaining is continuing throughout the night," Unifor said in a staement early Tuesday morning. "Unifor members should continue to maintain strike readiness."

If talks fail, more than 5,000 autoworkers will hit picket lines.

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— Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU will attend the Cabinet meeting and question period. Later, he'll join Foreign Affairs Minister MÉLANIE JOLY in New York City to lead Canada’s delegation to the U.N. General Assembly.

— Deputy Prime Minister CHRYSTIA FREELAND will attend the Cabinet meeting and question period.

11:30 a.m. NDP Leader JAGMEET SINGH will participate in the Canadian Labour Congress and CUPE National Rally for Anti-Scab Legislation.

12:30 p.m. Energy Minister JONATHAN WILKINSON makes an export financing announcement in Ottawa alongside Romanian Energy Minister SEBASTIAN BURDUJA, Ontario Energy Minister TODD SMITH, Canadian Nuclear Association CEO JOHN GORMAN and OPG CFO AIDA CIPOLLA.

12:55 p.m. Environment Minister STEVEN GUILBEAULT is in New York to tout Canada’s climate policy at the U.N. and will appear on an energy transition panel at Columbia University where he has scheduled media availability. He attends the U.N.’s High-level event for Nature and People in the evening.

7 p.m. NDP MP DON DAVIES, Coalition for DentalCare Founder BRANDON DOUCET and Canadian Health Coalition ANNE LAGACÉ DOWSON hold a virtual webinar on Canada’s plans to extend dental care coverage.

COUNTDOWN: PHARMACARE — Government House Leader KARINA GOULD started the clock ticking on a key plank of the Liberal-NDP confidence deal that could radically reshape the cost of prescription drugs for Canadians who need them.

Or not. It kinda all depends.

Gould pledged Monday that she wants a final vote in the House on a pharmacare bill by Christmas. The bill would offer "tangible steps towards a universal national pharmacare program," she said. The deal with the New Democrats was to pass it in 2023, and Gould intends to.

— What the NDP wants: The third party's longtime health critic, DON DAVIES, told iPolitics he's looking for a truly universal program that covers everybody.

Davies isn't looking for a "fill the gaps" approach that covers uninsured Canadians but preserves pre-existing private coverage. “We’re negotiating in good faith,” he told iPolitics. “We have been clear and consistent in what we want. We have a timeline in writing.”

OUTSIDE OPINION — Playbook asked JANE PHILPOTT, the dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Queen's University and former health minister, what she wants to see in the legislation, what's possible on the government's timeline, and how soon uninsured Canadians could expect to benefit from a pharmacare program.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

What's the elevator pitch for a single-payer system?

I just pulled up ERIC HOSKINS' report to the federal government from 2019. The data he's got there is that there are currently 100-plus government-run drug insurance programs and 100,000-plus private programs. So it's complete chaos. The Pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance does negotiating for provincial plans, the First Nations plan, the Correctional Service and Veterans Affairs. So there's a fair bit of savings that's already been found through that.

But if there are 100,000 other plans, you're still seeing people not getting the best deals on their prices. Imagine if those had the joint force of a single plan to be able to negotiate pricing. We're talking billions of dollars that can be saved.

Some will argue, 'Well, it doesn't matter. If your private insurance plan is paying for it, who cares?' But we all know that ultimately the worker pays for those private insurance plans. It's not like it's coming from nowhere. It's the employers, it's our businesses across the country that are paying an enormous amount for providing that kind of coverage.

What could the bill and program look like?

My guess is that it's going to look a little bit like the Canada Health Transfer. Even if it is a universal single-payer, it's probably still going to be provincially administered. There would be a pharmacare transfer, presumably. And then the provinces would set up their own version of what that looks like.

I find it hard to imagine that this can be done by the end of the year if it's a universal single-payer, because this is going to require some pretty hefty conversations with provinces and territories, who will have curiosity as to the jurisdictional authorities, et cetera, unless that's been negotiated. But my guess would be it probably hasn't.

How soon could Canadians actually benefit from pharmacare?

Looking back at the Hoskins report, if things had moved ahead immediately, maybe the expensive drugs for rare diseases would have started to be available by 2022.

Even if we get a law passed, are Canadians actually going to see pharmacare available before the next election? Almost certainly not. And maybe that's part of the strategy: make it an election issue.

— Prime Minister Trudeau is on CBC's Front Burner pod this morning.

— Toronto Mayor OLIVIA CHOW to Premier DOUG FORD: "You’re always trying to get me to cry."

— The Writ's ÉRIC GRENIER digs into a Pollara survey on name recognition in Canadian politics. The pollster found 57 percent of respondents could, without any prompt, name PIERRE POILIEVRE as Conservative leader. (Tell us: Is that figure higher or lower than you expected?)

— Innovation Minister FRANÇOIS-PHILIPPE CHAMPAGNE on hauling grocery CEOs to Ottawa: "I appreciate the constructive nature of the discussions we had. Bottom line is that they agreed to work with the government to stabilize food prices in Canada." The NDP was nonplussed.

— Nunavut's minister of environment and energy, JOANNA QUASSA, resigned from Cabinet, citing family reasons.

— The country’s health ministers will meet in P.E.I. on Oct. 11 and 12, JACK HAUEN at The Trillium reports.

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For POLITICO Pro subscribers, our latest policy newsletter from KYLE DUGGAN: Trudeau says India could be behind Canadian’s murder

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Find the latest House committee meetings here.

Keep track of Senate committees here.

— The Senate returns.

— The public sector integrity commissioner’s latest findings on an investigation into a disclosure of wrongdoing will be tabled in Parliament.

9 a.m. The Senate Indigenous Peoples Committee meets for briefings with Saskatchewan Treaty Commissioner MARY MUSQUA-CULBERTSON, Know History’s RYAN SHACKLETON and researcher EDWARD G. SADOWSKI.

11:45 a.m. Business Development Bank of Canada President and CEO ISABELLE HUDON, will discuss the crown corp at a Canadian Club event in Toronto, in conversation with journalist AMANDA LANG.

12:30 p.m. Energy Minister JONATHAN WILKINSON makes an export financing announcement in Ottawa alongside Romanian Energy Minister SEBASTIAN BURDUJA, Ontario Energy Minister TODD SMITH, Canadian Nuclear Association CEO JOHN GORMAN and OPG CFO AIDA CIPOLLA.

3:30 p.m. Four industry department officials will be at the House Industry Committee as MPs meet to take Bill C-34 through clause-by-clause consideration.

Behind closed doors: The House Environment Committee meets to review a draft report of their study on clean technologies in Canada; the House Fisheries Committee meets to review a draft report of their study on ecosystem impacts and management of pinniped populations; the House Justice Committee’s Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure meets; “committee business” and also chat about a report about the governor-general’s travel expenses is on the agenda for the House Government Operations and Estimates committee; the House Veterans Affairs Committee meets to review a draft report on a national strategy for veterans’ employment after service; the House Justice Committee meets; and the Senate Agriculture Committee has a discussion about “future business” on its calendar.

Birthdays: HBD to Liberal MP BRYAN MAY. HBD + 2 to Crestview's MUHAMMAD ALI.

Send us birthdays: [email protected]

Spotted: Five new MPs getting the awkward/endearing first introduction to the House by PIERRE POILIEVRE and JUSTIN TRUDEAU: ARPAN KHANNA, BRENDAN LESLIE, ANNA GAINEY, BEN CARR and SHUV MAJUMDAR.

Auto parts hypeman FLAVIO VOLPE and Sun columnist BRIAN LILLEY, agreeing that Liberals aren't gifting billions in taxpayer subsidies to VW and Stellantis.

JOHN MANLEY, the former Liberal Cabinet minister and frequent harsh critic of the current Liberal government, advising PM Trudeau to follow JERRY SEINFELD's advice and quit after nine seasons. (Trudeau's ninth year in power starts next month.)

International Development Minister AHMED HUSSEN sitting third to U.S. Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN’s right at a ministerial meeting of the resettlement diplomacy network.

Conservative MP MICHAEL COOPER choosing the butter chicken lunch special in the West Block cafeteria … PM JUSTIN TRUDEAU repping his alma mater, wearing a red silk McGill tie heading into question period … Seatmates DAVID LAMETTI and MONA FORTIER taking in their new environs wedged next to the NDP, in a row with other fellow ex-Cabmins: HELENA JACZEK, MARCO MENDICINO and OMAR ALGHABRA … Mendicino rocking the no-tie, post-summer look in the chamber.

Conservative MPs PIERRE PAUL-HUS and MICHAEL CHONG making a run for the precinct shuttle bus during Monday evening's downpour.

Movers and shakers: A raft of Rubicon consultants is repping Dell Products on the Hill. Top priority is a "strategic partnership" with Ottawa to "advance Canada’s telecommunications networks" that would include money from the Strategic Innovation Fund.

Irving Oil posted an August meeting with PMO senior adviser BEN CHIN. Topics covered: Energy, environment, taxation and finance.

Real estate broker LUC WOOLSEY signed up in the lobbyist registry for the Canadian Real Estate Association, where he's a director-at-large.

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